title: Smoking, citrullination and genetic variability in the immunopathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis.
abstract: This review describes how studies on interactions between genetic variants, and environmental factors, mainly smoking, contribute to the understanding of how autoimmunity to post-translationally (citrullinated) proteins/peptides may occur and potentially contribute to certain subsets of rheumatoid arthritis. A main message is that studies on specific immune mechanisms in a complex and heterogeneous disease like RA should be undertaken with the help of results from genetic epidemiology. By those means, it may be possible to identify subsets of RA in a way that in the end allows development and testing of precise and subset-specific interventions against environment as well as genetically defined molecular pathways, in particular those that regulate specific immune responses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet/Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, Stockholm, Sweden. lars.klareskog@ki.se
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Klareskog
authors.forename: Vivianne
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Malmström
authors.forename: Karin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Lundberg
authors.forename: Leonid
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Padyukov
authors.forename: Lars
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Alfredsson
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000276:immunology* / Q000378:metabolism; D002956:Citrulline / Q000378:metabolism*; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D012907:Smoking / Q000009:adverse effects*
chemical_list: D002956:Citrulline